Department for Transport

Electric Scooters and cycling: Road Traffic Offences

Lord Mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to bring forward legislation forcycling offences; and whether these will include offences related to the use of electric scooters.

Lord Mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to bring forward legislation to make the useof headphones while (1) cycling, or (2) operating electric scooters, an offence.

Lord Mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether electric scooters are legally required to have lights.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Government held a consultation in 2018 to consider cycling offences causing serious injury or death as well as reviewing existing cycling offences.The Government believes that there should be a separate framework of cycling offences, as compared with motoring offences, because it may not be proportionate to apply offences and their corresponding penalties intended for drivers of motor vehicles, to cyclists. The response to the consultation will be published before the end of this year but early next year at the latest.On e-scooters, privately-owned e-scooters are illegal to use on the road, cycle lanes or pavements, and they can only be ridden on private land with the permission of the landowner. The law is very clear and there are existing penalties for improper use.Although it is not a specific offence to cycle and use headphones, cyclists could be prosecuted by the police for careless or dangerous cycling. Cyclists and users of trial e-scooters have a duty to behave in a safe and responsible manner and need to concentrate like all other road users and should not do anything that would affect their concentration and put themselves and other road users in danger.For those who do not adopt a responsible attitude, or if their use of the highway creates an unsafe environment or causes nuisance, there are laws in place that can make them liable for prosecution.In the UK, e-scooters are treated like any other motor vehicle under the Road Traffic Act. The Government is running trials of rental e-scooters to assess their safety and wider impacts. We require trial e-scooters to meet minimum standards on the e-scooter design, including what lighting is required through administrative vehicle orders issued by the Secretary of State under s.44 and s.63 of the Road Traffic Act. The evidence gathered during the trials will inform whether e-scooters should be legalised in the future, and how we can ensure their use is as safe as possible.

Department for Education

Pupil Exclusions

Lord Storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) primary, and (2) secondary, school students have been permanently excluded from school for each of the last five years.

Baroness Barran: The requested information is shown in the below table.Number of permanent exclusions in state-funded primary and state-funded secondary in England between 2015/16 and 2019/20: 2015/162016/172017/182018/192019/20State-funded primary1,1471,2531,2101,067739State-funded secondary5,4466,3846,6126,7534,269Source: School Census.This data is also available in the national statistics publication, 'Permanent exclusions and suspensions in England', which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england. The permanent exclusions section contains a chart and table giving the number of permanent exclusions in state-funded primary and state-funded secondary schools for the academic years 2015/16 to 2019/20.

Alternative Education

Lord Storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children and young people are currently in (1) registered alternative schools, and (2) unregistered alternative schools.

Baroness Barran: Local authority-maintained establishments providing alternative provision are often referred to as pupil referral units. There are also an increasing number of alternative provision academies and free schools. In January 2021, there were 12,800 pupils with their sole or main registration in these settings in England. A further 9,200 pupils have a dual subsidiary registration in these settings, meaning that they also have their main registration at another school.The department also collects data on placements in local authority funded alternative provision. There were 32,700 placements in local authority funded alternative provision. This includes 26,400 placements with a registered provider, 700 in non-maintained further education, 2,300 in one-to-one tuition, 200 in work based placement and 3,100 with an ‘other unregistered provider’. Placements with a registered provider are all settings with a unique reference number or UK Provider Reference Number, i.e. registered on Get Information About Schools (https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk.) or the UK Register of Learning Providers (https://www.ukrlp.co.uk.) and include 19,200 placements in independent and non-maintained special schools.

Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide councils with £28 per person per day to support Afghan refugee families.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: There is a package of support for local authorities to assist the resettlement of families through either the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) in addition to the additional funding for wraparound support.We are currently working with HM Treasury and other government departments to finalise the arrangements for providing the funding for both the ARAP and ACRS schemes and the bridging hotel funding. We recently shared the final drafts of the Funding Instructions for local authorities providing hotel wraparound support and the ARAP/ACRS post 1 September 2021 schemes, with strategic migration partners for comment.We hope to issue these instructions as soon as possible. Once these are published, we will also write to each local authority and invite them to submit their claims for processing.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

NSO Group

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, if any, with the NSO Group to request they recode their Pegasus software; and what plans they have to restrict trade with the NSO Group.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: It is vital that all cyber actors use capabilities in a way that is legal, responsible and proportionate to ensure cyberspace remains a safe and prosperous place for everyone. The UK works closely with allies around the world to tackle cyber threats and improve our overall global resilience to attacks. The National Cyber Security Strategy, supported by £1.9 billion funding, has transformed the UK's fight against the cyber threat since 2016. The UK does not operate a US style "entity list" for commerce blacklisting. We operate a policy of sanctions against organisations and individuals who are a threat to UK national security, including in Cyber.

Pangolins: Conservation

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking with international partners (1) to protect the pangolin population globally, and (2) to prevent the criminal export and trafficking of pangolin products to East Asia from (a) Nigeria, and (b) other parts of Africa; and what representations they have made to the government of Nigeria regarding such issues.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The UK Government is at the forefront of international efforts to protect endangered animals, including pangolins, from poaching and illegal trade. We are investing over £46 million between 2014 and 2022 on work to directly counter the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) in animals and plants, including counter-poaching initiatives and efforts to reduce demand for pangolin and pangolin products, to benefit wildlife and communities. The UK is also making a significant contribution to halting biodiversity loss and tackling IWT through funding the Global Environment Facility, totalling £250 million (2018-2022).UK Border Force and National Crime Agency officers based in Nigeria are working closely with Nigerian law enforcement agencies at Lagos' port to tackle IWT. This has resulted in three major seizures totalling over 18 tonnes of pangolin scales in 2021 alone. The British Deputy High Commission in Lagos has also established a "Friends of Nigeria Wildlife" group and is supporting a number of grass-roots initiatives to protect the pangolin, from opening a rehabilitation centre for pangolins freed from the illegal wildlife trade, to supporting a conservation Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that teaches school children about Nigeria's diverse wildlife. The British High Commissioner and her team raise IWT with the Nigerian Government regularly, including in quarterly meetings (alongside US and German counterparts) with the Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs, the key Nigerian Government agency responsible for this issue.More broadly, through our £4 million contribution to of the International Consortium for Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) strategic programme, we are building capability in law enforcement and customs officials to tackle the illegal wildlife trade in key countries, including countries across Africa and Asia.